Don’t they? This part of the article stood out and rung true to me:
> The thief has chosen to prioritize their executive function over another person’s and, having found that this makes their lives easier, repeats this behavior unless it is disrupted.
(Emphasis added.) By imposing the executive function-depleting responsibility onto others, they reserve EF capacity of their own which they wouldn’t otherwise specifically by extracting that cost from others.
Pollution is a negative externality and I would understand the gist of it if it was called theft of clean air, but hesitate to endorse the wording.
I think of theft is something that you catch someone for and punish and potentially get back what was lost or some of it. Negative externalities I think of as something that needs to regulated legally or through some other feedback mechanism.
> The thief has chosen to prioritize their executive function over another person’s and, having found that this makes their lives easier, repeats this behavior unless it is disrupted.
(Emphasis added.) By imposing the executive function-depleting responsibility onto others, they reserve EF capacity of their own which they wouldn’t otherwise specifically by extracting that cost from others.